First Day!

So today was my official first day at my new internship at MMG Worldwide! It was a day full of housekeeping and getting a lot of what I will be doing this year all together. I found out some exciting news as we found out who our client will be as interns and that is, The City of San Francisco! We don't have any idea of what we will be doing yet, but all I know is that I am really excited to get started. I got my cubicle that I am in temporarily until space opens in the creative department tomorrow and I am so excited to finally be in here!

I had no idea of how big this company is or what clients they exactly work for, but some of my mentors are working with clients like Colorado, Barbados, Trump Towers, and more! Looking over some of the past intern work I finally felt content that I had the skills to complete the work that was needed. Just working inside this office has already made me feel more professional and that I have skills that are worthy of something.

It's really interesting to see how they handle payroll and traffic inside the office as to who is working on what project when. I always found that as confusing to figure out how much to bill the client and how to keep track of what you are doing but this cleared up and confusions I had. Their system was streamline and made complete sense to me already and it is only my first day, as a system like this should.

Well looks like 5:00 is coming around and I have finished most of my initial research for the day so I'm signing off and I will hopefully be catching up with you guys to fill you in on the details soon. Just hearing that we landed a client as large as the City of San Fran? That was huge to me.

J

"The Future" is closer than I think...

On Tuesday I will start the internship of my dreams at MMG Worldwide. I have been working towards getting an internship at an advertising agency downtown for over a year now, through the development of my resume (thank to Tracy), direct mailer, website, and everything else I have been working my ass off trying to finish.

Well on Tuesday I meet with the other interns and my supervisors and get to figure out what exactly I will be doing. I just thought I would make a post to let you guys know what will be going on and to check here for weekly (if not more often) updates. With the level of excitement that I have currently, I'm sure I'll end up posting everyday when I get home!

It seems that I have waited my entire college career to be able to do this internship. Not to try to get a job (although that would be nice) but just the opportunity to see my career choice in the real world. I want to be able to say that I am on the right track or that I truly do love what I do, even though I already do love it. I guess I could say I am excited to start, just to validate my choices thus far. If I don't get validated, I guess it was a good experience? Let's hope for the first option and not the second. But I am open to anything (that is not true).

So keep me in your thoughts as I embark on the next big journey in my life. I wish you all could feel my excitement.

Sidenote: I can't sleep. I have to be up at 5:30 and it is currently 1:00 and I haven't slept yet. I'm so excited and it is still two days away.

I Can See the Light!

I have just sent off just about all of my internship applications and all the deadlines have almost past. So you know what that means? The waiting period begins.

This is my least favorite but the least stressful time of the process. I just hope that I am given a chance to at least interview for most of my internships just cause then I feel like I am in more control of the situation.

But at least I know that I made one kick-ass leave behind for the interview and hopefully they like it. This weekend is the GIT banquet and I will be showing my portfolio, hopefully I will get some good pictures of my display so you guys can see more of my completed work that I have done. Time sure has flown by working on this project and hopefully my grades are still doing well, most of my interest has been on landing a good internship.

In other news, I'm currently trying to start a new class for the GIT department here at Pitt. Basically it is very reminiscent of other classes that KCAI, KU, UMKC, and other schools similar do and it is a senior show class. Basically I have pitched it as being all the seniors working together to put on a show that would point out all of our strengths and give us a chance to brand something as a group! Below I have some examples of what I would like to do, I think this is a genius idea and hopefully it makes it past just being an idea.

University of Central Missouri Senior Show

Kansas City Art Institute

Johnson County Community College

University of Kansas

Well that is all I really have to talk about right now, not a lot going on just waiting, waiting, and more waiting. Hopefully I have good news to share with all of you when I find out more details!

If you are a company that is looking for interns reading this, hire me! You won't regret it.

Find My Passion.

I have learned that sometimes it is necessary to pick your battles. Look at what you are fighting for, who are you fighting, and where their intentions are. Is it really worth it to waste emotions over this? Is it going to negatively or positively affect anyone’s life? I feel that I am constantly trying to insight change.

Some people are just brought into your life to challenge you and to make you realize that some things just aren’t that big of a deal. Life goes on. If no one will listen to you, who cares, keep your integrity and just back down.

I think that my experiences have taught me many things and one of those is to re-evaluate my priorities.

Sometimes it doesn’t take a large event to make you look back, but a million tiny events to finally realize that you can make a change. I believe that my intentions are in the correct place and that if I am given the right opportunity I will be able to create greatness.

I use the word greatness, very loosely. When I state the word greatness I consider the video I created for PSGAD one of my examples. I’m not saying that it was the best designed and cohesive info graphics. What I am saying is that after I created it I was bursting with pride, the feeling that I may have helped someone. If one person saw that video and it helped them through the day or it made them think they can make it, I did something right. That pride, the feeling that you are doing something right and helping someone is what I want to continue to strive for in everyday life. I feel as if I joined organizations on campus to help further my resume for internships, jobs, and experience. While I have been given great opportunities for all three I think I have lost my purpose behind it all, to feel that pride.

Internships have clouded my judgment in what I need to get from my life. I feel that in the process of trying to stand out and make my resume pop with all of my experience I lost myself. What do I want? Here is a bulleted list to explain.

- Help People
- Use graphic design, everyday
- Work for an advertising agency
- Continue to raise money for things that matter to me

Now don’t misunderstand this message. It is not saying that I do not want the internships I am applying for, that is the one thing that I do want. What I am trying to say is that, I am frustrated with the fact that I have to stand out so much when I should have just realized that myself is enough. I am one hell of a passionate individual and I fight for what is important to me. I don’t want an advertising agency because of the money or the clients. I want a job there because it gives me that pride, graphic design is my passion and I would love a chance to even learn a bit about how it works to make sure it is where I belong.
I need to stop trying to please everyone and think what does someone want from me. I don’t need everyone to like me, because I have enough people that love me. My opinions may alienate some or even offend others, but that is the joy of it. It is my opinions and my projects.

I hope you enjoyed my random train of thought. Can’t understand it?

Sparknotes version.

I need to start finding what gives me that pride and get back to doing stuff that was important to me, also nail a killer internship.

Inforgraphic: How Netflix Destroyed Blockbuster

If you know me at all you know I am a sucker for a good infographic. When it came to my Pitt State Gives a Damn video it was just one huge infographic. Well I recently found this one through @aigakc on twitter. But I just found this really interesting and thought I would show it off to you guys.

Enjoy!


Via: Online MBA Programs

ADDY'S!

In case you haven't already heard...if you talk to me on a regular basis then I am sure you have heard by now, but I am officially an ADDY winner! I entered four pieces of work, but I have no idea which one is the one that one! I have a suspicion that hopefully (crosses fingers) two of mine won. I'm not gonna get my hopes up or anything but we will find out this Saturday night! I wish that you could spend a minute inside my head and you would understand then how proud/excited/anxious this makes me! Unfortunately for my first ADDY win I can't be there to accept the award, I will be in St Louis for a Campus Activities Conference! But nonetheless I am an ADDY winner and so proud. I have posted below the two videos that I have a feeling won, or in my opinion are the best of the things I have done. The first is Green is the New Black and the second is Pitt State Gives a Damn!

Green is the New Black from James Smith on Vimeo.

It Gets Better Infographic from James Smith on Vimeo.

Interesting Concept

I recently found this post that @AigaKC retweeted and it is a genius concept. You know that old photo that you took when you where a kid in those at the time sweet shoes? Well this has you take the picture in the same setting, clothing, and poses as those old photos. I have never been more interested in something and I have no idea why. I just think this is really cool!

Check it out!



Click this link to see more!